


When I Ruled The World

by solitudinem



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers through the end of season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 07:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17198927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solitudinem/pseuds/solitudinem
Summary: Jon visits Elias in prison.





	When I Ruled The World

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Nonny for the beta. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

The first time Jon visits Elias in prison it’s to gloat. He’s not above such a thing and he feels after everything he’s been through he’s earned it. But when he walks into the visiting room, with its bare white walls and long metal countertop divided by metal partitions and sees Elias sitting in his maroon inmate uniform, hands shackled and resting on the ledge in front of him, he’s overcome with such a deep-seated feeling of _wrongness_ he freezes in the doorway.

When Elias meets his eyes through the thick security glass Jon turns and flees.

***

It’s almost three months later before Jon gathers up the courage to visit Elias again. He hasn’t been able to shake the image out of his mind.

He limps up to security and hands them his cane for them to look over. He feels ridiculous when he uses it, but walking long distances without it is impossible, at least for now. He has physio three days a week to strengthen muscles atrophied by his months-long coma. His doctors are still scratching their heads at his survival, at his dead-but-not-dead diagnosis. They’d wanted to keep him longer, run tests and take samples but once he was well enough he left ‘against medical advice’, according to the paperwork he signed. He was done being at the mercy of anyone other than himself.

Except-

This time he makes it further into the room, sees KEEP HANDS VISIBLE AT ALL TIMES written in dark block letters above each booth. He sits down on a metal chair that’s been bolted to the floor, squirms a little at the shooting pain that goes down his leg and finally, finally raises his eyes to look at Elias again.

His hair is longer, flopping over his forehead in an oddly boyish way. He looks paler but not sickly so, just pale in the way that someone who actively avoids sunlight looks. Not like Peter, where there’s something else causing the paleness. His inmate number is stamped in white ink on the left side of his chest.

He looks good in maroon.

Jon can’t bring himself to pick up the black phone that hangs on the wall next to the viewing window. His hands grip the ledge in front of him, can’t make himself unclench his fingers from the metal. He’s not sure how long he sits there like that, frozen, trapped by Elias’s gaze. There are no words exchanged.

Eventually a guard tells Jon his time is up. He stands, reaches for his cane and watches Elias’s eyes track his movement. There’s a small smile on his lips, though Jon does not know its cause.

As he turns away and limps out of the door they both know he will be back.

***

“Hello Jonathan.”

The cold hard plastic of the phone is pressed against his ear and when he hears Elias’s voice for the first time in almost a year Jon finds it hard to categorize all the feelings that well up inside him. There’s still anger, there will always be anger, but now there’s something else lurking just beneath the surface. A sadness at seeing Elias like this, a king unseated from his throne. It’s almost pathetic. But Elias carries himself as if he were still king, sitting proud on his new throne of sanitized metal bolted to the floor.

“I’m pleased to see you’re doing well,” Elias continues, his eyes roaming over Jon just as they have always done, possessive and hungry. Jon shivers at the familiar caress. “And the others?”

Jon’s fingers tighten on the phone. “Don’t-don’t talk about them,” he manages to say even though his throat is determined to keep his words trapped inside. “They’re none of your business. Not anymore.”

Elias chuckles and Jon knows it’s futile to say such a thing. Of course Elias knows how they are. It’s not like he’s locked up in some special prison that can block his Vision. He will always be watching.

“Alright,” Elias capitulates, though there’s still amusement in his voice. “Tell me Jonathan, why are you here?”

It’s not a compulsion, at least Jon doesn’t think he’s being compelled. He’s not even sure Elias is capable of that, but he still finds the words tumbling out of his mouth. “I was curious. After waking up in hospital and Martin told me what happened I looked online and didn’t find anything about a trial or-or even a news story about your arrest. I had to see for myself.”

“And now that you have?”

“I-I don’t know.”

***

Jon has to schedule his visits with Elias now. The irony is not lost on him. He learns from Melanie, who tells him in a gleeful, slightly unhinged way, that they’ve put him in solitary confinement so his visits have to be carefully planned. There can be no other prisoners or visitors in the room while he’s there. Jon thinks that’s overkill, but he doesn’t dare say it out loud.

After the last visit he tells himself he won’t go again. He’s not sure why he even went in the first place. Yes, part of it was to satisfy his curiosity but the other part...he doesn’t know. Nothing’s felt right since he’s been back. When he passes Elias’s old office with the rearranged furniture and Peter behind the desk it unsettles him far deeper than any change ought to.

And there’s something wrong with Melanie and Martin too, beyond the mental trauma inflicted on them by Elias. Melanie is erratic, unreliable. She disappears for days at a time and no one can get a hold of her. The first few times it happened Jon was almost frantic with worry but now...now he’s used to it. He’s used to walking past her desk and seeing it empty.

And Martin...Martin’s become so distant that Jon’s not sure how to reach him anymore. He walks through the Archives lost in his own little world, gets startled whenever someone tries to interact with him. He still does his job, but he no longer hovers outside Jon’s door waiting until Jon needs something, or asks him to lunch, or even offers him tea. He is adrift on his own little sea of thoughts that Jon is not privy to.

Not that he wants to be. He is no one’s therapist and he still has his own issues to work through. The fact that he _is_ changed is enough to keep him awake at night. Or if he sleeps he dreams of the creature beneath Alexandria and wakes up in a cold sweat because he can’t stop the thought that one day that will be him, doomed to roam the tunnels under the Institute despite Elias’s prior assurances to the contrary.

It all adds up to a low buzzing he can feel down to his bones, a restlessness he can’t shake. Nothing is right and he doesn’t know how to fix it. If it _can_ be fixed.

Well, he knows one way. But he’s not that desperate.

***

“You have to come back.”

Elias raises an eyebrow at him and Jon can tell he is carefully schooling his expression to remain as neutral as possible.

“Oh? And why would that be?”

Normally Jon would get irritated at such a question. Elias Knows, of course he does, he just wants Jon to say it.

It has been eighteen months since Elias has been incarcerated and now...now Jon is desperate. He’s desperate for things to be like they once were, when Elias was still at the Head of the Institute, when he at least knew where he stood with the other man.

With Peter he is lost, like a boat broken loose from its moorings to drift amongst the waves. And Peter has done everything to keep him away. Away from Melanie and Martin and even Basira. Hell, he’d been keeping them away from each other too.

The final straw was sending Jon on wild goose chases with the intention of keeping him from his statements. Jon didn’t notice at first. ‘There’s an artifact in storage that I need, can you please go fetch it for me?’ and Jon would, because he couldn’t find anyone else to delegate the job to. And it would take hours. The next one took a day. And the one after that he was sent somewhere far, far enough for Jon to feel the pulling of the Eye calling him back. He was gone for two weeks and when he got back he had to find a statement himself to record, through the pounding headache and blurred vision, because the Institute was deserted.

He’d been set back in his rehab too. His limp is worse, the wound on his leg refusing to completely heal. He can barely sleep some nights due to the pain. All because of Peter.

He’s had enough. He tells Elias as much.

“Please tell me there’s a way to--to _do_ something about him.” He knows he doesn’t need to elaborate to Elias who the _him_ is.

“And what do you propose I do? Break out of here? How would I manage that? Will you help me?”

Jon’s eyes fly over toward the guard standing behind Elias because he’s fairly sure that kind of talk is going to be met with swift repercussions but the man just stands there, back against the wall. That’s when Jon notices his eyes are glazed over, pupil and iris blending into one solid, muddy color. On a hunch he turns around to look at the guard in his own room and sees the same, only this one’s eyes are a milky blue.

The realization makes his stomach clench so hard he almost doubles over and when he turns back to Elias the other man is looking back at him with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. It is a smile devoid of warmth and humor.

“You _can_ , can’t you?” Jon almost doesn’t ask, but he needs the confirmation. He needs to know.

“Of course I can.” Elias looks at him as if he were disappointed. “Honestly Jon you’ve always underestimated my abilities. It’s starting to get offensive.” He leans forward, shackles clinking against the metal. His face is inches from the glass. When he speaks, his voice is low and dangerous and it makes Jon shiver. “It’s easy to go in and alter the memories of every miserable person in this wretched place to make it seem like I’ve never been here. To wriggle my way into the head of the person in charge at the Criminal Records Bureau so that they look up my information and _oops_ their finger slips and it gets deleted from their database. Do you know why there hasn’t been a single piece of media about my arrest and trial?” He doesn’t wait for Jon to reply. “Because every single person who has looked at my face, who has read my name, has forgotten that I. Even. Exist. I can make it so that every door opens to me at just a thought and I can walk out of here without so much as a look in my direction.”

Jon’s cheeks are wet. He feels like he’s going to be sick. “Then why-” he chokes on his own question, words stuck in his throat.

Elias’s gaze still pins him to the chair even as he leans back from the window and he drops the phone down, though Jon can still hear his voice loud and clear in his head. “It’s not time yet.”

Jon struggles to his feet, grips his cane in numb fingers and hobbles out of the room as fast as his leg allows. None of the guards pay him any mind.

***

So far he’s kept his visits to Elias a secret. It was no one’s business but his own. Except now that the idea that Elias needs to come back- to reclaim his throne- has cemented itself inside his head he can’t keep that secret anymore. He wants to know if someone else, anyone else, feels the same way he does or if it’s because Elias has gone so far inside his head that his thoughts and feelings are no longer his own.

The first person he tells is Basira. And he doesn’t just tell her about the visits, he tells her _everything_ . Everything he’s been feeling, everything he’s been thinking, everything he’s observed. She listens to him quietly and he can _See_ her mind working, processing the evidence, comparing it to her own experiences.

He’s not surprised when she agrees with him. As much as they both hate Elias they can agree that Peter is _worse_ . They don’t know _why_ , but the evidence is there. After their conversation Jon feels buoyed, lighter than he has in the past year, less helpless.

***

He doesn’t bother to tell Melaine. Not that he can find her these days anyway. He can prepare himself to deal with the fallout after everything is said and done. It’s better for everyone that way.

***

Telling Martin is a mistake.

He’s underestimated just how far the other man has pulled away from him. He used to be able to rely on Martin, to know the other man always had his side, no matter how terribly Jon treated him. And looking back on it now, after the argument they just finished, Jon’s realized just how monsterous he’s been to him over the years.

And Martin kept coming back to him. After all those cruel words were said, after everything Jon’s put him through he always came back, maybe a little more cautious than before, but still patient and kind more than what Jon deserved.

But now he knows Martin will not come back to him after this. He’s finally found the other man’s breaking point, already thin and brittle after losing Tim. Jon tries to explain himself in the same way he did with Basira but it’s hard for him to be coherent when Martin is looking back at him with a betrayed, hurt expression.

“Jon, don’t do this. _Please._ ”

He hates that he’s made Martin beg. And he knows that there is probably a better solution. It’s most likely hidden somewhere in the Institute amongst the books and papers and artifacts but there’s a niggling in the back of Jon’s mind that if he doesn’t do something _soon_ he won’t be able to stop what is happening. Whatever it is.

At this point is doesn’t matter. Having Elias back at the Institute won’t make things right, nothing will, not after all that’s happened and everything that Jon’s learned but there an instinctive knowledge he feels deep down that this is where Elias belongs and the longer he is away the worse it will be for everyone.

Again he tries to explain himself but Martin is already lost to him. He can see the minute he closes himself off completely, no longer willing to hear _reason_ and Jon gets angry because it so _obvious_ but Martin won’t _listen_.

It isn’t until later, after Martin says “If you do this I’ll leave. I mean it Jon.” that Jon feels like he’s been kicked in the chest because he’s already made his decision. He’s made it a long time ago, possibly the first time he saw Elias sitting in that visitor’s room.

It bothers him that he’s not sure if it’s the Beholding making the decision for him or if he’s made it entirely on his own. He’s not sure which is worse.

***

The prison is still and quiet when Jon gets there weeks later. He knows it’s Elias’s doing. Far off, through the fenced in walkway, Jon can see prisoners out in the yard. They are standing rigidly still, arms at their sides. If they were closer Jon knows he’d see that glazed expression on their faces that the guards had the last time he was here.

The front door is already open and a man in a Warden’s uniform is there waiting for him. His eyes are glassy, face completely slack and emotionless. The guard sitting behind the thick glass of the reception desk is no different. Wordlessly the Warden turns and starts walking and Jon has no choice but to follow else he risks getting himself lost .

He’s felt hollow since his conversation with Martin. Like something has been taken from him leaving an empty space with edges raw and aching. He’s never felt the way about Martin that Martin feels -felt- about him but clearly he feels _something_ otherwise he wouldn’t be hurting so much.

Just another thing to hate Elias for, though Jon can’t help hating himself too.

The Warden leads him deep into the prison, past the visitor’s area and through a long series of eerily quiet cellblock hallways, the only noise the tapping of Jon’s cane on the linoleum floor. Jon looks into a few as they pass, sees that their occupants are in some kind of catatonic state keeps his eyes forward for the rest of the journey.

His legs aches, he thinks about taking a minute to stop and rub the pain out of the muscle but after they go through another security checkpoint he knows he’s being led directly to Elias and he doesn’t want to stop now. The buzzing in his bones is back, an anticipation he hates himself for feeling but he’s feeling it all the same. His stomach tightens as he is led down one final hallway, gray cinder block on one side and solid steel doors spaced several feet apart on the other.

The cell door at the end of the hallway is open and Jon sees a shadow spilling across the floor. His steps slow and as eager as he was to see Elias before now his body is sluggish, feet too heavy to lift and carry him forward. He has to force himself to continue. He’s made his decision, even if he turns and leaves he has already set a plan into motion that cannot be stopped.

He knows Martin will be gone when he gets back to the Institute. Melanie is already a lost cause. Basira is the only one on his side. For now. When it all comes down to it it’s just him and Elias against everyone else. Jon wants to laugh at that but his throat is squeezed so tight he can barely breathe.

Elias is no longer in his prison uniform. Instead he is wearing a gray dress shirt tucked into darker gray trousers. The tie around his neck is tied in an intricate knot. He is buttoning the cuffs on his shirt as Jon stops in the middle of the hall facing the open cell.

As Jon looks at him the world tilts, a brief undulation that makes him reach out to touch the cool metal of the doorway to get his bearings back. The hole inside him fills with something darker and heavier than what was there previously. There’s a rush of power that makes the buzzing in his bones turn to singing. When he meets Elias’s eyes, sharp and bright with a hint of a smile he finally feels like things are as they should be.


End file.
